Niagara Falls Mayor Jim Diodati called on council last week to look past their personal differences set course on a “more peaceful” and productive path in 2018.

“It’s a new year, and we’re hoping that we’re going to be able to take a renewed approach,” he said, noting that 2017 was a challenging year for Falls council and throughout the Region.

“I can tell you at the Region there are council problems, in other municipalities they’ve had challenges and obviously with us as well there’s been challenges. So what we’re hoping now is this year if we can all come together and focus on who put us here and why they put us here.”

Diodati, said the example he likes to use is the “Prime Directive.”

“… which for us is the strategic initiatives that we’ve all agreed to years ago … over all I think we can agree it’s been very productive … we’ve had a lot of great things come forward and hopefully there’s going to be a lot more great things coming forward," he said.

"It’s best if you know, we say, ‘we don’t have to worry about getting beat by another municipality. We’re going to beat ourselves … the path that we’ve been on.'”

He said there are only 10 council meetings left in 2018 and then there are the elections, and that it’s important for council to move forward in a way that reflects what the people elected them to do.

“I’ve spoken with all of council about the ideas of moving forward in a productive way and I think we’re all on the same page. That’s our goal. That’s what people at home expect us to do, and they expect us to follow through on why we were elected, which is city business,” Diodati said.